RETOOL GHANA NAVY

The disclosure by the Chief Director of the Ministry of Fisheries, Mr Emmanuel Mensah Quaye, that the Cabinet has agreed to acquire six ships for the Ghana Navy to enable it to patrol Ghana’s territorial waters to check illegal fishing by foreign fishing trawlers has come as a great relief to many Ghanaians.
According to Mr Quaye, the ministry plans to help modernise fishing methods in the country by assisting local fishermen to develop fibreglass canoes to replace the wooden ones that are currently in use.
The fact that a company from India, Fibroplast, has expressed interest in the building of the fibreglass canoes shows the determination of the authorities to address the problems of the fishing industry .
The fishing industry in the country plays a very vital role in supplementing food production towards overall national development. But the fisheries sector seems to be under some kind of siege, leading to inadequate fish catch.
The problem has been either that fishermen continue to use outdated and illegal fishing accoutrements, which contribute to the dwindling fish stock, or that large foreign trawlers invade our territorial waters to deprive our fishermen of the much needed fish because their fishing gears cannot match the might of the foreigners.
In fact, the Ghana Navy has confirmed this practice by some larger foreign vessels but because of its handicap, it said there was nothing much that it can do to address the problem.
The dangers posed by these foreign vessels that engage in pair trawling are well-known and it is not for nothing that our local fishermen, some of whom also engage in the practice, are crying foul that they cannot make any catch. Their claims that the activities of the pair trawlers sweep the seabed smacks of double standards as they are behaving like the people who would go upstream to tangle the waters and come downstream to express disgust.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that one way by which our fishing stock can be improved is to introduce fishing seasons in the country as is done in the game (bush meat) sector where there are lean seasons during which hunting is forbidden.
Some European countries apply this to their fishing industry and during the lean season fishing is outlawed to allow the fish stock to grow and multiply.
The DAILY GRAPHIC thinks the practice can be replicated in the country to save the situation before the worst scenario occurs. The decision in some fishing communities to rest for a day in the week is not enough to help regenerate the fish stock in our territorial waters.
The process for the acquisition of the ships for the Navy should be stepped up because through that we will be killing probably so many birds with a single stone or bullet.
Through the patrols on the seas, the Navy will be checking not only the activities of foreign fishermen but also the activities of drug traffickers, whose activities have become very sophisticated and are tarnishing the image of Ghana.
We hope that Ghanaians have not so soon forgotten about the MV Benjamin episode and matters arising therefrom. The sophistication with which the drug traffickers are operating demands that we make further sacrifices to equip the Navy to protect the country’s territorial integrity.